Aussie Finch Forum

Is anybody feeding these little crustaceans to their birds? There seems to be plenty of them around my place. Short of putting a compost heap in the aviary, has anyone got any good harvesting ideas?

I thought "here we go again, another common name argument" but Hey, Matt got it right.

For those about to use Google to see what he's talking about, I found this on the Museum of Vic Website:


Article on that page says they are "an important food source for many animals" and that they are common in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. I lived "here" all my life and have never ever ever seen one .

If you scratch around in some moist leaf litter they are the little things that flip and hop all over the place. Birds have a hard time catching them but some of the softbills manage. You can catch them by burying a glass jar up to it's rim and put a small amount of water in the bottom which stops them from jumping out. They can live in shallow water for a while but eventually drown at which time they turn orange like a cooked prawn, to which they are related being a crustacean.

If that is a "springtail" I feed them to quail and the other birds eat them also if they get the chance. I find them in the mulch under ground covers in my yard. I just grab a spade full of soil from under the ground cover and it contains Springtails along with earwigs, slaters and worms. I feed these to day old quail and have always found I lose very few young if they have had this diet on 1st few days. Quail also eat all leftover livefood, when I feed out the new maggots each day quail get the old ones put on the floor for them. But quail fed on just the maggots and no garden insects have a lower survival rate. I spread them around the yard by just moving a spadeful of soil to other shrubs occasionally and keep the litter up under the ground covers.
The springtails I get are around the size of a matchhead and are dark brown in color. I have seen a different specie in huge numbers under seaweed on the beach they are nearly clear in color and the size of earwigs. I often though the birds would love them but usually on holidays when i've seen them, (collecting cuttlefish).

The jar method is pretty much how they were discovered. They kept appearing in my son's guinea pig water bowl. I'll put a few jars around and see if it's worthwhile. I dont even know if the finches will eat them but I remember hearing or reading somewhere about them being good tucker for finches.

If you want to harvest heaps out of your compost heap the look up a Berlese Funnel for extracing soil/litter bourne insects. It is the easiest way, most time efficent, most cleanest and allows you to retrun your compost back to the heap to be recolonised. As with all things they maybe a host for some common parasites - but hey that is nature, isnt it.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=berle ... 80&bih=895" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Try these images I dont need to elaborate any further.
Good hunting